The skating story you won’t see coming

Speaker 13: I’d watch the Winter Olympics and behind my house, I grew up on a farm. We had this little pond behind our house and I was like, I’m just gonna put my little winter boots.

Of course we couldn’t afford ice skate, so I’m like, put my boots on and I’m just gonna go out there and just skate my heart out, and I’m just out there skating. Just so much skating and I see my, my dad and my mom and my four siblings just looking up outside of the farm windows at me, like they know I’m talented.

I’m gonna be a star. Me and Tanya. Little did I know you guys, it wasn’t a pond. I found out later in life that we had a septic tank overflow.

So I’m shit skating, you know? I’m like, I think I’m doing like a triple sound cow. I’m doing a double dooo. My dad told me to practice or my skills would go shit.

Andrea Marie: We are Moms Unhinged, a nationally touring standup comedy show. Join us in our podcast as we explore everything from motherhood, midlife, crisis, marriage, divorce, online dating, menopause, and other things that irritate us. Hello everyone and welcome to the Moms Unhinged podcast. We are joined today by Jené Suplee. Super excited. She has been, she just told me she did 45 shows since August with this new show she’s been doing, but she’s also been traveling all over the country with Moms Unhinged, and she has a 3-year-old daughter. I don’t know how you’re doing it.

Jené Suplee: I don’t know either, but I’m here. I don’t have pants on. You just see from the neck up. That’s efficiency. Efficiency. You just,

I’m going to nap immediately after this.

Andrea Marie: No time for pants.

Jené Suplee: No. No, mm-hmm. You have to pay me to wear pants. That’s now the only time I wear pants.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, that’s so awesome. Well, we are so excited to talk to you. There’s just so many things we can talk about. I feel like we just have to dive in ’cause we were talking before we get on about growing up in a Midwestern cult.

Jené Suplee: A casual Friday morning convo. No big deal, Andrea. Well, thank you so much for having me. This is so fun. Always happy to jump on and talk to you always. Such a great, I love that we have the podcast going now. So, yes, we were talking about my background, which comes up quite a bit in my comedy as well. Midwestern culty stuff.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, so you grew up in Northern Illinois and now you’re in Colorado. You escaped the Midwest where, I also. Yes, I also did as well. It’s a nice place to visit.

Jené Suplee: Beautiful. Not in the winter.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, in the fall between these four weeks.

Jené Suplee: Yes, we have month of visibility in the Midwest.

When she knew something was “off”

Andrea Marie: Tell us a little bit more about what that was like ’cause your dad was like a spiritual leader. Is that like, did he call himself a pastor? What was that?

Jené Suplee: Yes, he called himself a pastor. I mean, as soon as soon as I turned about eight, I was like, this. There’s something going on here. But yeah, so he was a spiritual leader, you know, a pastor for all intents and purposes, in different churches, religious communities.

But, it was actually before I was born ’cause I have three older siblings and a younger brother. All name J for Jesus. Sidebar, but true. And I’m like, I don’t think Jene was in the Bible, thank God. Anyway, so he started and it was much more. I would say like cultier, like right before I was born because they, my siblings were actually kinda like raised in more of a commune type vibe.

And then I was born into that. I was born in northern Illinois in the commune. In a trailer. And so we lived there until I was about four. My dad was a pastor and I think he was a security guard on the side too, so while my mom was, you know, raising us. And so he just kind of got more and more and more extremist in his views as his practice went on in spirituality. So yeah by the time we moved to my home, you know, my hometown in northern Illinois, we moved into a house and kind of start to set up roots, but he actually led a smallish Bible study continuously that kind of had a base of it. That those cult vibes were still a through line.

Growing up with the 13th apostle

Andrea Marie: Okay, so it was sort of based in Christianity, but then it, like it became more extremist was situation and then what were some of the interesting extremist things?

Jené Suplee: I was like, well, we only have 30 minutes, so let’s dive right into the trauma, just welcome to Moms Unhinged and Jene’s Trauma. No so some of the extremists, so he believed that he was the 13th apostle. So for those of us listeners who knew kind of, you know, have that background of Christianity in the Bible, there were 12 apostles.

He thought he was kind of had been born to orchestrate kind of a new world order and he thought was the 13th apostle. He really kind of focused and structured the majority of his ideology around IBLP, which is the Institute of Basic Life principles which is the understanding.

It’s Christianity, but like extremists, you’re kind of like naturalists, herbalist. You don’t really believe in doctors. And there’s a very strict hierarchy in that. Meaning first it’s God, then it’s Jesus, you know? So a very and then it’s the father of the household.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Jené Suplee: Not the mother. Oh, no, no, not yet. Father of the household. The oldest brother. Youngest brother. So all of the male people in the family. And then the mom, oldest daughter. Youngest daughter.

And guess who’s the highest or the youngest daughter? Ooh, ooh. So one of the extremist things was I mean, I did all the dishes for the family, and we were talking seven people, all of the laundry.

Mm-hmm.

So I was kind of the lowest on the totem pole, I just had a thousand chores a day. I mean, the other kids did too like, if you, I don’t know, I’ve been listening to Game of Thrones again, and I’m like, I was just the peasant, like sweeping the street, like, you know. It’s like, it’s very like doth rocky vibes.

Like I was just like the lowest in the order, you know? So I had just kind of a lot of manual labor, usually within the home because women stayed within the home. Boys did outside chores. Like I wasn’t allowed to play sports. We didn’t celebrate holidays, so like no trick or treating, no Christmas, type of stuff. Yeah.

Andrea Marie: That’s interesting. No Christmas too, because that’s, you know, feels like that’s number one.

Jené Suplee: It’s a Pagan holiday, Andrea. No. And for those listeners that are afraid, I clearly dissolve myself from said cult.

I really never bought into it ever.. I mean, as a young kid. So my dad I kind of always butt heads. But one thing that I realized I had was at a very young age, like kind of a photographic memory, and I was homeschooled until I was 10.

So I went to Bible school while I was homeschooled, so that was like really the only social interaction I had with other kids besides my 13,000 siblings. But I would win competitions in what’s called memory verse. So shout out to Bible school kids. But you would do these competitions and you would memorize the whole Bible verse.

They would start to say, they would only say the first three words and you had jump up. You had to jump up and recite bible verses, full Bible verses from memory. I was like our district regional champion for like seven years or some number, yeah.

Andrea Marie: Nice. Everyone’s like look out.

Jené Suplee: Look out Jene Suplee just crushing, crushing it. Memorizing the literal Bible.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Jené Suplee: That’s I think where like academia started to plan. ’cause like, though I was homeschooled, I was kind of already reading at my older brother’s level. And my efficiency was like, just learn your older brother stuff. What are we doing here? So kind of did that.

Leaving the world she was raised in

Andrea Marie: Just jumped in. Yeah ’cause that’s kind of what, we were also talking about is you went from cult to corporate to comedy. You know, not your traditional.

Jené Suplee: That’s not a traditional trajectory. That’s not how we all do it. I know it’s funny, I tell the joke on stage now. I just kind of rewrote this and I’m really excited to do it, but talking more openly and because it, you know, that’s kind of the challenge is like I’m a whole person. I have gone through years and years and years of therapy, literally deconstructing a lot of ideologies and conditioning.

So like I am so okay. Like I am in the best place in my life I’ve ever been. But yeah, there’s a lot there. So just kind of making the cult piece and what leads into that? ‘Cause we all know what like happens on the sidelines, like yeah, it was just little house in the prairie and we were just building things and having fun.

Like there’s a lot of spiritual abuse in there. Physical, you know, there’s a lot that goes into that. But I recently wrote the joke that it’s like, just to make it more approachable for audiences. That now that I have an MBA, I realize, like my dad had, he only had one job and he only converted one of my siblings of the five of us into the cult.

It’s like you’re running a business that’s a 20% return rate, bro. Like, that’s it’s bad business. Like what are you doing? But yeah, so just finding different ways to make that content a little bit more approachable, yeah.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. Yeah, that’s so interesting. And I think the thing that I think is so interesting about all of our upbringings is that when you’re a kid, you kind of just think that that’s normal. Like, oh, okay, everyone’s doing this. And then you get a little older and you really, you look around and you’re like, oh, oh no.

All right. You guys don’t have to do the whole housework for the entire family, or, or whatever.

Jené Suplee: So what are you guys doing with this time? What do you do?

Like I just meal planned for seven people and did 16 loads of laundry.

Andrea Marie: And I’m five. Yeah, right, right.

Jené Suplee: This isn’t preschool. These are preschool rules. Like what are we talking about? So crazy.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. So I mean, I think that that, you know, all of us have things that we need to unpack. I think therapy should be mandatory actually.

Jené Suplee: Ooh. Ooh.

Andrea Marie: I know.

Jené Suplee: Yes. Agreed.

Andrea Marie: Yeah but, I know it’s always challenging with, even as parents getting time to do anything self-care related, but it’s good that you kind of moved through it and can really look at it from the other side.

And then also adding in comedy to make it more accessible for people who might have more trauma around it, you know?

How comedy became the outlet

Jené Suplee: Absolutely. And it is, whenever I do, any homeschool bits, like there’s like a new bit that I’m doing where I talk about how I like was obsessed with the Winter Olympics and I love Tanya Harding and I thought we had a pond behind my farmhouse. And it was actually a frozen septic overrun.

So I have a joke where I was like, shit skating and I just had my little boots on. So there’s just like all of these, and every single time I tell a story, I will have multiple people come up to me and say I was homeschooled. Were you really? Oh my gosh. Like that happened to me.

I kind of escaped my dad’s religion or my family’s. I mean, I had a really long conversation actually recently after a show from someone who was like, no, I escaped a cult. I was born into it and did not leave until I was 25. I was Engaged when she was 17. Like all this crazy stuff.

So it’s just also, I feel like it just opens like this up, this beautiful door of we can talk about it. And it’s important. It’s important to talk about it’s important to talk through some of these things. Because otherwise it’s like, I didn’t know that, you know, that happened to me.

So it’s kinda like my job as a comedian and a performer to be like, how can I make this? Like palatable for the people who were like. I grew up in a subdivision, you know, like my mom loves me. Like, because I am that mom. Like, you mean? Like, now that my, I mean my daughter’s almost three. And me and my husband are very active in like, how do we break these cycles and make sure she has that secure attachment?

So that’s we’re just like kind of actively doing. So one of my friends who. Was homeschooled. He was like, dude, do you realize, like, are we afraid that our kids are gonna like, not grow up so boring? And like not have a character? Like that’s all, that’s the other side of the coin.

Andrea Marie: Don’t put them in a normal track. You know, we need a little spice in there.

Jené Suplee: Right. How are they gonna develop sense of humor? Not through safety, how dare you. But yeah, that’s kind of always the challenge is how to be authentic and honest and open. Because, you know, now that I’ve kind of come on the other side of a vast journey of like healing and things like that.

It’s like, how do I make this approachable and funny? Because it’s like, especially with Moms Unhinged, like I love our audiences much. They are the best of the best of the best, and they’re moms, so they’re like. just wanna give you, I just wanna hold you and give you a Popsicle sad little girl. So it’s like making that, being like, I’m okay.

I’m okay guys. So I’ve really of working on that part of the comedy into making it relatable. Yeah.

Therapy, healing, and telling the truth

Andrea Marie: Right. It is true because I think that the one thing that is challenging about comedy is it does. It’s tragedy plus time equals comedy, right? So you have to get through it.

You can’t be out there like working through your really personal stuff up there. You have to have that lens of reflection and hopefully some therapy in there mixed in there so you can see like, what is the most ridiculous piece of this?

What is kind of weird about this?

Jené Suplee: I love that you said, Andrea, that’s so spot on. Because it’s almost like, okay, if you wanna do, not that you should just air this out for a little tester, but if you wanna see where you are with grieving something, or if you’re over something or processed it or healed from it enough. Tell a joke about it.

And if you’re uncomfortable and the audience is kind of crickets. Like, oh you’re not over it yet. Yeah. So, yeah, absolutely. That’s so true because I’ve definitely done that where it’s like you talk about something a little too soon and you’re like, okay, not yet. Thank you.

Not quite yet. We’re not there.

Andrea Marie: Not healed. Not healed. I will work on it.

Jené Suplee: Not healed. And it’s funny because I actually started my comedy career six months after my dad passed. So there was a very, like, healing process, you know, while he was passing. And that felt just very restorative for me. I hope it did for him.

I knew that by the time even I got on stage, the first time I was gonna be talking about my dad and my childhood, and that kind of part of the catharsis of processing it because I was like, I’m ready to go. Like I am. I’m healing this. And it’s never been awkward talking about my childhood or my dad. I can say.

Andrea Marie: Good. Yeah, that’s good. Now, did you get into comedy because of that? Was that like part of the impetus there to get in to it?

Jené Suplee: Kind of, I didn’t realize what was gonna happen after he passed because we had actually been excommunicated. I should say, I’d excommunicated him like the last five years of his life or so. Because he just couldn’t get past that misogynist conditioning in himself. Right so I was like, you know what if I’m gonna be a whole ass person and a whole ass woman?

No. Like, it doesn’t even matter if you’re my dad. So I walked away from that and that was amazing. It was very freeing. I kind of started to build my life, like on my own terms, which was lovely. And it wasn’t until he passed that I was like, what am I doing? Like has always been on my bucket list.

I up watching SNL, like I have to do this and yeah. So I think him passing was kind of a catalyst into like spring launching me into, I mean, an entire career because this, I’m a full-time creative person, so it’s just the whole trajectory and how everything is unfolded, I couldn’t have planned it better myself.

Andrea Marie: I know.

Jené Suplee: It’s been crazy.

Rebuilding her life from scratch

Andrea Marie: Yeah, that is so wonderful. I love that so much, and I love how things just seem to continue to rise to meet you where you’re at. Because, you know, you were in corporate and that was kind of, you had a great job there and then just yeah, kind of started moving into comedy right?

Jené Suplee: Yeah. And it all just unfolded so wonderfully. And I mean, it was like, I felt like I was like climbing a mountain then falling back down it. I was getting torn apart, like halfway up.

But yeah, so I had as soon as I graduated college, put myself through school, started actually working in higher education technology, worked for a higher ed company who actually paid for my Master’s in full, which I’m like free MBA.

If there’s anything I’ve learned as a poor kid, if it’s free, I’m gonna take it. So I got my MBA from a very accredited university and I finished that and I like was continuing to do, you know, the corporate thing. I moved up into director levels in tech, senior manager. So I led teams, went into a lot of different facets of technology, higher education.

Just kind of dove into like the corporate world side. And had been doing that forever. And again, it’s like my dad passed and I was like, let me just take a break for a minute and kind of like restructure what this is. Luckily I have an extremely supportive partner. Travis was with, you know what I mean?

We were, I think, engaged at that point when my dad passed and that was what, six years ago now? So, yeah, and I was like, let’s just do this. So I started taking standup classes actually. So I was like, I’m not a self-taught person. I can learn. I can learn just about anything. So let’s let you know, someone else teach me. Shout out Christie Buchele RISE.

Andrea Marie: Yay.

Jené Suplee: She always shouts out Moms Unhinged.

Andrea Marie: Oh, she’s amazing. She’s awesome, so awesome.

Jené Suplee: Like, such an amazing teacher, really finds the uniqueness in students. And she was like, so what’s unique about you? What could be something that could stand out?

And I was like you know, so just like all this childhood material and I love it ’cause she’s not an instructor who was like, that’s not gonna be relatable to this person.

Or you shouldn’t talk about that. She was like, talk about all of it and frame it into joke content. So my first five minutes was at a student showcase.

It’s the first time I really did standup ever. And I mean it’s a very welcoming crowd too ’cause it’s your family.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, yeah. I love that.

Jené Suplee: Of the others students. But it just went really well. And I still tell those same jokes. It’s just that, you know, again, shout out to Christie Buchele.

She helped me, like structure them and it’s just, a good writer. But yeah, I hit my five year mark basically because the first time I did standup I was like, February of 2020, here I come, let’s go. And then was like the world’s ending. Cool so, but luckily I was able to get into an all female writing group, I mean.

Other Moms Unhinged as well, Ashley N-g was in that group. And it was just crazy because that group was just like our lifeblood. We were all comedians.

We running jokes together, practicing, so then when basically right around like 20, 21, which is like, I kind of count that being when I started because I literally did one show and it was done.

Andrea Marie: That was fun. I hope do that again someday.

Jené Suplee: I was like, well, at least I did the bucket list thing and I did it once if it’s all over. So it was crazy ’cause I still had my corporate job. So I do feel for like a lot of my now comedian friends who were comedians during the pandemic, because I still had my full-time job, my husband did.

We were very, very fortunate in that. But kind of once it opened back up, I just kind of hit the ground running, started getting booked, started moving and shaking. And then I got pregnant and I was like, as a comedian, there goes my career.

And then that again, it’s like one, you know. If you just follow what you’re supposed to be doing, it’s like one door opened after which is lovely because I remember I sent in my audition tape for Moms Unhinged, and I was what, nine months pregnant performing.

Stories from life with a strong-willed toddler

Jené Suplee: And I was just like, well, if this is the real me. This is where we’re at, and I was so fortunate to start working with you. So been, and now I have this awesome baby and we are just, you know, rocking and rolling, awesome.

Andrea Marie: Yeah. And you guys have a very, I mean, your husband, he has kind of a job that he can schedule. And you have, I mean, it seems like scheduling can be kind of a challenge, but you guys make it all work.

Jené Suplee: Yeah, he works in automotive, so he does body repair for an auto shop. And it’s crazy. I mean, ’cause he just went back to work ’cause he took almost two years off and was a stay at home dad. It was lovely. It’s like so funny. He was born, like he didn’t know. And then our daughter was born and he had this like crazy paternal instinct, like, I don’t wanna leave this baby.

So I was like don’t dude, like, don’t. So I was still working my full-time corporate job. So I supported us while financially, while he, you know, supported our daughter. And I worked from home and we spent all of this amazing time together. I was still doing moms and hinge shows on the side and kind just fit fitting in comedy where I could.

And then as of recent, just in the last year, he’s like, I’m ready to go back to work. She has a full ass personality.

Andrea Marie: Yeah.

Jené Suplee: She’s telling me no. Like we need a professional. So we’ve started to put her in daycare for a few hours a day and I moved into, yeah. So I quit my corporate job and ’cause I was like turning down opportunities with Moms Unhinged, I turning down, you know, just ’cause I didn’t have the time.

And then I, this past year, Andrea, we’ve been going wild and I love it and I’m so happy.

Andrea Marie: That’s so great. I love that so much. I love that so much. It’s perfect. And one of the other things I love to ask is about an unhinged moment you’ve had, it could be just personally with your daughter, your, it sounds like you got a lot of unhinged moments with your family, but we’ve kind of covered that.

Jené Suplee: No, I mean, she’s almost three, so she is just naturally unhinged. I mean, I literally like, you know, she was jumping off the couch, like grabbed her and I was like, okay, still got the reflexes. I still got it. But so everything is always unhinged undercover.

Andrea Marie: How they’re trying to kill themselves all the time. I’m like, how are you guys all still alive? You guys are just go, go wild.

Jené Suplee: I mean, luckily I’ve recently invested in a beanbag, so now she just like base of the couch onto that beauty. So any toddler moms invest in a beanbag and that designated. Jumping spot, otherwise it’s broken faces.

A pill she definitely didn’t mean to take

Jené Suplee: So the unhinged moment that we were talking about Andrea, that actually now been like, one of my closing jokes because it’s so outrageous was before I had my daughter, I had an IUD for 10 years.

So two IUDs, five years and five years. And during one of the procedures, they give you a pill called a uterine relaxer. It’s a pill about the size of my full closet door. Not small. And I was like ooh, big pill, tiny mouth sounds like a challenge. I swallow it in my mouth hole and I get to the appointment and she’s like, you took that vaginally, right?

And I was like, nope. So I swallowed something called a uterine relaxer in my mouth.

This is why I don’t work in corporate anymore. So busy in between meetings. I’m like, does it even matter what the bottle says?

Andrea Marie: I know like who’s got time to read? Who’s got time to read directions. I’m not a big reader of directions either. I’m just like, okay, let’s go. Check, check, check. Let’s go, let’s go. And then, yeah, you gotta get to the appointment.

Jené Suplee: Why would a pill go be going into my stomach before getting an IUD in? Who knows? Like there was I, and I love the joke because like the friends that have known me since then, they’re like, you’re telling that? Like you were scared?

Andrea Marie: That was terrifying.

Jené Suplee: Everything relaxed but my uterus like it was. It was crazy. And apparently, I mean, that’s the best part was she was like, I was like, well, okay, problem solving mode, what’s gonna happen? And she was like, who knows? No one’s done this before.

Andrea Marie: No one, no one has done this before.

Jené Suplee: And she’s like, not since I’ve worked here and I’ve been for 17 years. I was like, just call me a record breaker. I don’t know. So anyway, they were just kinda like, I don’t know, sit it out, see what happens. So I just like had a massive sweat attack. I was just like sweating.

Andrea Marie: Oh, seriously? How scary.

Jené Suplee: It was crazy. I mean, I was totally fine, but I was like, well, efficiency, I’m here. Can I just get the procedure done?

They’re like, no, we highly recommend the uterine relaxer for your So went back in a week later, put it in the right place. Figured it out. Let’s look at these directions this time.

Andrea Marie: Oh my gosh, lesson learned. Definitely. Read the directions, ladies.

Jené Suplee: That’s my recent, well, I say recent. That’s my longstanding like unhinged moment. Yeah.

Andrea Marie: I love that because it is just so, we’ve all done something so ridiculous like that where you’re like, what? Why? Why didn’t I just take one moment to just pause and think things through? yeah.

We’re busy. We are busy doing a million

Jené Suplee: things.

The best part is like when I do that joke with Moms Unhinged, and I tell that story with Moms Unhinged audiences, there’s always a nurse, there’s always someone in pharmaceuticals. There’s always someone that comes up and was like, that is not what you do with that. And I’m clearly, clearly. Like, it was the wrong hole. Like we all know. So it’s just so funny where they’re like, that’s dangerous. I was like I wasn’t doing it to be rebellious.

Andrea Marie: Right. That is what I love about the stories. We can all relate to something like that. Like, so it’s just so great. So Jene, this has just been so much fun.

Jené Suplee: Yeah.

Andrea Marie: Tell our audience where they can find you to follow.

Jené Suplee: Yes, you can find me. You can hit me up at my website, Jene Suplee Comedy. You can also find me on Instagram at TikTok and TikTok, @jenesupleecomedy. Yeah, I am sometimes posting in between.

Andrea Marie: In between your 45 shows? Yeah.

Jené Suplee: 45 shows between now and August and I’m so excited after this current run I’m doing with this showcase. I’m excited to rejoin Moms Unhinged.

Andrea Marie: Yay.

Jené Suplee: That’s so fun in November.

Andrea Marie: Yeah, great. Well, we’ll have those links in the show notes everyone. So thanks again, Jene.

Jené Suplee: Thank you, Andrea.

Andrea Marie: See you guys later.

Jené Suplee: Always a joy my friend.

Andrea Marie: Thanks for listening and make sure you subscribe, share, and follow us on the socials to get more comedy clips.